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Status Report: 01-283

NASA hurricane researchers explore tropical storm Chantal

High-flying researchers from NASA's Convection and Moisture Experiment (CAMEX) have taken a look inside Tropical Storm Chantal, a storm that continues to follow the track of forecast models, but has not intensified as previously predicted.

Two specially equipped NASA research aircraft, an ER-2 and a DC-8, took off from Naval Air Station Jacksonville, Fla., at 2:05 p.m. EDT Monday on an eight-hour mission to collect high-altitude information on Tropical Storm Chantal.

"Chantal provides us a great example of why we need to continue research of severe storms," said CAMEX researcher Dr. Ed Zipser of the University of Utah, Salt Lake. "At several points during its journey west across the Caribbean Chantal indicated that it was beginning to follow the forecast models, then abruptly violated expected behavior.  Chantal's behavior is providing us with an opportunity to learn more about the dynamics of severe tropical storms and hurricanes."

The aircraft flew from Jacksonville south to Orlando then west and south across the Gulf of Mexico to the Yucatan Channel east of Mexico.  The flight path then transited the Yucatan Channel south to intersect Tropical Storm Chantal east of Belize.

The DC-8 research aircraft, a converted commercial jetliner, flew an inverted figure four at 35,000 to 40,000 feet, while the ER-2 flew a similar pattern above the storm at 65,000 feet.  The overlapping patterns, or "stacked formation," over Chantal samples the storm at various altitudes permitting scientist to study the storm from top to bottom.

On Sunday the NASA team flew the first flights of the Aerosonde Unpiloted Aerial Vehicle, a small aircraft that will fly into the boundary area of hurricanes.  No problems were found during the first flight.  NASA hopes to send the Aerosondes in the violent base of the storm, where no piloted vehicle dares to go.

The CAMEX mission unites researchers from 10 universities, five NASA centers and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).  The study is part of NASA's Earth Science enterprise to better understand the total Earth system and the effects of natural and human-induced changes on the global environment.